Gravitational field has energy, E field does not?

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 2K views
csmcmillion
Messages
63
Reaction score
2
Watched a physics lecture yesterday in which the teacher stated that a G field has energy, but an E filed (due to the Coulomb force does not). This does not compute. Both fields have potential energy, yes?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Yes, that doesn't make sense. Are you sure that's what they meant?
 
Pengwuino said:
Yes, that doesn't make sense. Are you sure that's what they meant?

Maybe not. The exact statement was "In an ordinary sense, electric charge is not energy, but gravitational charge is energy". So maybe I am misunderstanding the statement.
 
Okay that clears it up. They are talking about the equivalence between mass and energy that comes out of relativity. There is no analogous equivalence for charge.